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One Pound Lost is Three Pounds of Progress
Author’s Note: While this blog is first and foremost about IT, since the very beginning it has always been about how I see the world… whether that be music, martial arts, travel, whatever. Although I have struggled with my weight since the very beginning (and for many years before that), I have done my best…
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Arrogance… or Excellence?
I had some papers to sign regarding a new job last week, so rather than dressing for the beautiful sunny southern California heat, I put on a dress shirt and tie; in recognition of the Casual Fridays concept, I wore a sport jacket instead of a suit. I drove to Culver City to sign the…
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Calling It What It is
We are currently experiencing an outage that affects (all of our websites). This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails, or online chats. We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience. I use a number of tools and…
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Covid-19 and Security Theatre
I was walking through the casino at Binion’s on Fremont Street, Las Vegas last weekend, and I couldn’t help think about an old friend. Dana Epp, one of the smartest people I know, and an IT security expert, introduced me to the term Security Theatre. I don’t remember how many years ago that was, but…
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Office Client Connections: Are you covered?
When Microsoft introduced Office 365, subscribers stopped worrying about new versions. As long as you were a subscriber, your monthly updates would deliver the newest versions of the client applications, and not just monthly patches. It certainly made life simpler. Still a lot of people prefer to purchase software, and not subscribe to it. That…
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Goodbye Microsoft Store.
In 2009 Microsoft started opening retail locations, hoping to compete with the Apple Store. Over the past eleven years, and especially while I was still a Microsoft MVP and living in the Greater Toronto Area, I did a lot of work with the stores in Toronto and Mississauga, and wrote many articles about experiences at…
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Sharing is Caring… but don’t touch the merchandise!
Raise your hand if you still think that the only way to share a document is to e-mail it as an attachment? Those days are fortunately long gone; Microsoft 365 offers you the ability to share a link to a document that you have stored on your OneDrive for Business. It offers a few real…
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Azure Administrator
A little over a year ago I spent two days sitting at a Starbucks in Atwater Village preparing for what turned out to be one of the easier exams I have taken over the years. I earned my first one-star badge from Microsoft (Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals). I did not do much to follow it…
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Microsoft 365: Know Your Plan
While it has been true for some time, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when quarantines, lockdowns, and shelter in place are forcing the vast majority of information workers to work remotely, and when video conferencing is ubiquitous, Microsoft wants everyone using Microsoft Teams. Question: True or False: Every Microsoft 365 plan that is business- or enterprise-focused…
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The Inefficiencies of Legacy Thinking
Until recently, I was working at a company that was in the process of migrating their datacenters into the cloud. Their policies, written many years ago, stated that information had to go through their corporate firewalls. During the Covid-19 outbreak that saw 95% of the workforce working from home, this was nevertheless interpreted to include…
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If Anyone Could Do It…
There is an old saying: Those who can, do… those who can’t, teach. We will get back to that in a bit. I work in an industry where ongoing training is a part of life. If I had rested on my laurels when I got my first few senior certifications, I would be searching the…
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A Clean Windows Installation…
It happens twice every year… Microsoft releases a new version of Windows 10. For most people, the new version will be installed for them automatically by whatever method they use for patch management… either Windows Update, or any of myriad enterprise deployment tools their organization uses to manage desktop operating systems. Unfortunately, due to a…
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The End of An Era… Again.
Around 2005-2006, when I was running the Montreal IT Professionals Community, Microsoft announced that due to a lawsuit from the Quebec Order of Engineers, Microsoft would be eliminating the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) designation in the province of Quebec. As a community leader I rallied against that; my position was that it would create…
The World According to Mitch
The day to day ramblings of an IT Professional (and so much more…)
The World According to Mitch 